This is the fourth year that I have award a $500 StanCo Distance scholarship. I had eight applicants this year. As with the previous years, deciding on the winner was difficult. I read through all of the applications, thought about them, reread them, and scored them on a 24 point rubric that was sent to all of the applicants. They ranged from 18-22.5. Then I had a trusted colleague at my school read through the top 4, and we discussed the essays and Coaches' letters of recommendation. After that conversation, I was down to 2 candidates. That was my thought and decision process. They all would have been deserving of the recognition, but my wife says I have to limit it to ONE. : )
The final part of this process was to attempt to find a photo for each applicant, for every season that they competed. Well that involved HOURS of digging through photo files. Keep in mind how much some of them have grown and changed over the four years. The collages next to each entry represent the maturing of each of the runners (and the product of my labors).
Before I move forward I want to thank the eight runners who applied. I know this has been a tough and challenging 12 months. Running was suspended for a year, and it would have been easy to drop running and finish out your senior year with out it. I also know that much of what you wrote in your essays was deeply personal. I am honored that you were willing to share your stories with me. Running will always have a special place in your heart whether you continue with it or not. It has helped mold you into the fine individuals that you are. Secondly I want to thank the coaches for your dedication to the sport and the athletes, and the writing the of the letters of recommendation. Your incites helped my decision process. And finally, thank you to the parents of these stellar individuals. Their achievements are a direct reflection of how you raised them.
What I am including below is a small excerpt (typed as they wrote it) from each essay to give you an idea of how distance running affected each of them. Please remember this is not the whole essay and the essay was only a portion of the whole application. These are presented in alphabetical order.
...I joined Cross Country team expecting simply to get even faster for my own personal records. But I soon realized that distance running not only enabled me to improve my personal goals for running, it also served as an outlet through which I was able to make lasting friendships, develop my leadership abilities as a team captain, and mentor other distance runners as they began to run at Pitman. Often when you run on your own there is little motivation that guides you or pushes you to your best. But having a team of athletes motivated as I am to duly get faster and help their team win, I have found that the motivation to do better each and every day comes from that place of camaraderie and friendship which characterizes so much of our distance program.
...Running and my cross country team was there for me when I felt totally alone, and I plan on using this team mentality that I have grown further on in my life to become more of a well rounded person overall. Running has given me my best friend and one of the best support systems on the planet. A group of people who at the drop of a hat would do anything you needed them to without question. This support system had thus helped me find more confidence within myself to be bold, to be happy, and most importantly to help give this confidence to others who need it.
...Running isn't generally described as "fun." Although there are times where it it feels like I'm flying, there are also runs where every step takes all my strength, mentally and physically. Those days are definitely not fun, but I've found that they are the most valuable. Running has taught me to push through hard times, even when there is no end in sight. Sometimes I can't perceive the light at the end of the tunnel yet, but I know now that it is always there.
...I was doing it as a way to cope with stress. As a high schooler who worked very hard in academics and struggled to keep up with good grades in advanced placement classes, running would and still continues to help me forget about my worries and stress by just taking life at its tool. Sometimes life just gets away from you and you forget that you need to enjoy your time. With running, time feels like it slows down helping to enjoy life a little more at a time. Many get so caught up in life that they forget that there is so much more to life than just work and school.
...Not only have I gained lifelong relationships, but running has also provided me an escape from the chaos of my own busy life. A recent example is in February when my grandmother died unexpectedly at age 60. It was disheartening to my whole family. In order to reconcile and contemplate what was happening, I went on long runs at La Loma Park and spent hours running and observing all that nature has to offer. It provided me with an escape from the devastating reality with the peace that everything was going to be okay.
...I took a spontaneous and uncharacteristic leap and joined the cross country team, almost 3 years since I had last run. I had rarely met so many new people in such a short amount of time, and despite battling injuries and being middle-of-the-road, had a fantastic time, and even won the team JV title. Fast forward another year and I had drastically improved, ran as a top 5 runner for our first varsity league title, and had dozens of awesome friends and relationships on the team. I bring this whole"backstory" up to show that my choice to run Cross Country was a decision I did so at a point in my life where I had few friends, no drive, no passion, and no confidence. I had a bizarre stroke of spontaneousness and willingness to put myself in an uncomfortable situation that paid off a hundred times over.
...Distance running has helped my mental health in so many ways from helping me clear my mind when I run to giving me so many new friendship opportunities. The one thing I have learned from distance running is that one has to be strong minded to compete in that sort of sport. No matter how tired you may be you have to keep going to get to the finish line.
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And now for the 2021 scholarship winner.
I want to come clean and say that of the 8 applicants I knew six by name. One I knew his face and his name but had gotten the two criss-crossed with one of his teammates. And then there was the last applicant who I didn't know his name or his face. That is very unusual considering he had run all four years of XC and 3 years of track. Someone who had run past me dozens (if not hundreds) of times, how could I not know his name or his face. In fact this past week's track results were the first time I had typed his name...He may not have gotten my attention while he was running, but his application did. I am providing his entire essay below--
"You'd make a great swimmer, Ryan" my coach had said. I replied with a smile, but did not take this as a compliment. I had just been cut from the track team. As a Freshman, I had expected to make the team regardless of how I performed during the tryouts. "The coaches know you from cross country," I told myself, "only class-dodgers get cut from track." I was an unskilled runner my freshman year, but I denied that fact up until the very moment I was called aside by the coaches and led off the field. This I considered to be my biggest failure in life. I could have quit running then, but the fact that I did not is why I consider running to have positively changed my life: running taught me resilience.
When I eventually returned to cross country as a sophomore, I made the team. Of the athletes cut the year before, only I returned to the team, compelled by the shame of failure. I made the track team too, but only narrowly: I was still a literal back-of -the-pack athlete, and placed far behind my classmates in races.
Determined to seriously improve my running skill, I trained all summer before my junior year. At dawn, before and after work on the family farm, after dinner, 5-days a week: I committed myself to a strict running and core regime. This work paid off during my third cross country season. I finally qualified for invitational meets, finally got to go to subsections as a competitor, and by the end of my junior season, was ranked amongst the top seven runners on my entire team. Furthermore, despite the chaos caused by Covid-19 pandemic, I returned again as a senior to cross country and track. Applying the discipline I learned from my seasons prior, I committed myself to a strict workout regime to resist the tempting idleness of lockdown. The end result of this commitment was fruitful: I ascended into the top four runners on my cross country team, and earned my first ever placement medal in a race.
This journey from "dead-last" to one of the top-ranked athletes on my cross country team has had a significant impact on my mentality. It is the reason why I see distance running as having a positive influence on my life, discipline, and commitment to physical fitness. Distance running has given me a competitive drive and a desire to continually improve myself: character traits that have manifested academically as high self standards for my schoolwork. I was not born as a natural runner. It took failure to teach me resilience and this makes me all the more proud of my running ability.
I want to add the last Wednesday (4/28) Ryan ran at the CCAL Tri Meet between Gregori, Enochs, and Turlock. He won the 3200m race. I believe that this was his first individual win in any race.
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